Becoming a Sustainable Runner: A Guide to Running for Life, Community, and Planet

by Tina Muir, Zoë Rom

Becoming a Sustainable Runner is not just another running guide on developing the physical attributes to run faster or longer. What it will help you achieve is a newfound purpose that merges your passion for running with your concern for your health, your community, and the environment. It weaves together concepts of internal and external sustainability in a way that will help you run, think, and act in a way that is in line with your values.

Divided into three parts, the book begins by giving you the tools to find excitement and joy in your runs and sustain your running for the long term. These include acknowledging stressors, setting new challenges, changing where you run and who you run with, and prioritizing physical and mental rest to minimize the risk of injury, illness, and burnout.

Next, discover ways to enrich your running through personal connections. Learn about the importance of joining or forming a running community that fosters comradery with others who believe in the power of service and in giving back in meaningful and impactful ways.

Then, tap into your passion to sustain our planet. Know what it means to be an eco-conscious traveler, make environmentally friendly choices about where you run and the products you use, and reduce your carbon footprint through the 3R’ reducing, reusing, and recycling.

Throughout the book you’ll enjoy stories from the authors about their personal challenges and triumphs as runners and stewards of the environment. Quotes and insights from well-known runners who are also climate change and environmental justice advocates underscore the breadth and depth of the issues facing us all.

As a runner, you have the power to change the world for the better. Becoming a Sustainable Runner provides actionable steps to help you do just that.

Genres: Nonfiction

247 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 1, 2023

Reviews

[Kait Richert · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️ Wrote down so many great insights from this one!

[Noito · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fantastic book! This is a great fusion of topics that resonant with the modern runner who both wants to improve themselves, their community, and our world. Rom and Muir weave each of these topic together and show how they are mutually beneficial. Joining a running group can improve your mental health by developing interpersonal connections, but also improve your running by holding you accountable to get out the door and run. At the same time, you can use these connections to promote sustainable behaviors and increase your impact on our world. Absolutely loved it!

[Jean-Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Long a fan of Rom's writing and Muir's podcasting, pre-ordered Becoming a Sustainable Runner and devoured it quickly the first time through (it begs for situational chapter re-reads). Worthy of an audience beyond the running community, Rom and Muir offer personal anecdotes and strategies for meaningful subjects such as cultivating individual purpose, finding and developing community, and practical sustainability. Oh, and there's lots of accessible running advice too!🙂 Highly recommended!

[Alexandru Ghiorghe · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. "There are no bad foods. If you manage to listen to your body, then the quantity of food and the quality will also change." Bullshit. It's important to listen to your body, yes. But there are very simple bad and totally unhealthy foods, no matter what your body wants or doesn't want and shouldn't be consumed.

2. I have read in many books the chapter "how to grow our own fruits and vegetables", I succeed and I do it, but I am in the minority. And not because others do not want to do it, but they can not do it. You can not do this if you stay in the city, and most people around the world live like this. This should not be a solution, even if it seems interesting, we should put pressure on those who lead us, that the foods we buy to be healthy, not each to grow his own.

[Paul Hickey · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I agree with the authors world view and causes they champion, I was a bit disappointed. It’s a good book. It’s just not the book I thought I was buying.

If you’re looking for ways to take your persona and identity as a runner and carry it into your non running life, it’s got some great tips and stories. All of which will make you and the world a better place.

If you’re looking for ways to sustain your running as you move into your 50’s and 60’s, this isn’t the book.

[Patrick Leber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding reminders of things I already do plus I learned a few eye openers going forward. I noted many quotes from this book as they were insightful and amusing. If we each implement one or two takeaways from this book, it won’t change the direction we are heading in. But, it will feel good that we are trying to make the world a better place. I really enjoyed this read!

[Ashley Cissell-messenger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is most amazing and a book I highlighted and used post it notes and will reference daily

[Andrei Stoica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like how they discussed running and sustainability from a variety of different perspectives. Some good reminders and interesting new perspectives to ponder. Glad I read :)

[Aude Hofleitner · Rating 4 out of 5]

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